Review: Jadis Wine Bar

As most of you know, we recently finished our bi-annual salute to our primary muse: Marcel Marceau. We are sure that the committed readers amongst you enjoyed our new expressionistic art form: blog mime. Note to committed readers, please stop asking - we will never reveal how we make it look so real (as if Mr. Marceau would ever admit that there wasn’t actually a wall in front of him).

Of course we were left parched after our tribute was over – fake blogging is a tremendous amount of work (just ask the fake writers over at the Gawker empire). We decided to continue the theme into cocktail hour. No silly, we didn’t climb a fake rope to a fake bar and drink ourselves into a fake drunken stupor. We mean the French theme. We drove down to Lower East Side Bar Jadis for some tasty French wines. Though we tried to keep up the theme the entire ride down, New York taxi drivers can be a surly bunch when confronted with a Barfly driving on the wrong side of the road.

Tucked away on a cozy strip of Rivington Street – the bar offered everything that we desired (except perhaps a magical serum that could bring Marceau back from the dead). We ordered a glass of sparkling rose and enjoyed nibbling on some mini-quiches and bacon-wrapped scallops. As the night wore on, we found that this was the type of place that we could really settle into. A private party lit up the back space with their conversation and the smell of chartreuse wafted our way as couples picked over selections from the menu.

We were well on our way to getting ourselves into a cozy (and genuine) drunken stupor. We raised our glass, and hoped that wherever Marky Marceau happens to be, he is as comfortable as we felt in Jadis. This place certainly wasn’t some fake trip in the elevator that amuses the kids – it’s the real deal (admittedly though, those fake elevator tricks are the most hilarious thing we’ve ever seen).

Review – Jadis Wine Bar – 42 Rivington Steet (near Forsyth):

Mainly French Wine List – 4 olives – With a selection like this, it makes us want to sign on as a collaborater. Viva La Ristance! Or, wait – we think we’ve got the metaphor backwards. Viva La Nazis!

Mime Time – 5 olives – The most fun time of the day (except for drunky time, which is off the olive scale). Try it sometime – in the morning you can mime that you don’t secretly resent the person that you’re living with and in the afternoon you can sit at your desk and mime that it’s exactly what you wanted your life to be.

Caged-in Smoker’s Patio – 4 olives – At first we were put off. Why would they want to keep the smokers caged up? Then we realized that these folks are french – the steel bars are meant to keep the hideous non-smokers out.

Sparkling Wine on a Sunny Spring Day - 4.5 olives – Can we imagine anything better? Well, in fact, we can. How aboout a few shots of gin in that champagne!